THE SUPER CUP

 In the wake of the Heysel tragedy, English League clubs were banned from competing in UEFA competitions. So, the English League inaugurated the Super Cup, a tournament designed to fill the calendar for the club s that would have normally qualified for European competitions. In principal this was a good idea but it proved to be a shambolic failure, that achieved nothing!

Six clubs were invited to participate: Everton who would have played in the European Cup. Manchester Utd, FA Cup winners, denied a FA Cup Winners Cup jaunt, Norwich City the League Cup Winners-actually relegated! who could have played in the UEFA Cup and Liverpool, Spurs and Southampton whose League places would have deserved a place at the competition.

The SIX teams were placed in two groups of three, so that one "bottom" team would be eliminated  early on. The remaining four clubs would meet in two Semi-finals which seemed a good idea. In reality it proved to be a bit complicated!! It caused a farcical fixture congestion.

Liverpool and Everton both reached the FA Cup Final! AND the semi-finals of the League Cup, so had to postpone and rearrange fixtures. As the Merseysiders would be the two teams to eventually reach the final, the denouement to the Super Cup had to be held over until the following season as the 1985-6 campaign could not be extended due to the upcoming World Cup in Mexico.

By the time Liverpool won the two-legged final 7-2 on aggregate in September 1986, the tournament had already be shelved, the competition had already been shelved, destined to be a "one-off". Liverpool ran out comfortable victors in the belated showpiece, Ian Rush providing five of their goals as they won 3-1 at Anfield and then 4-1 at Goodison Park to claim the trophy.

Everton's supine (lazy!)display in the final ties may be put down to the (possibly apocryphal) story which manager Howard Kendall sending his team out for one Super Cup match having told them that the whole thing was a "waste of time"!! Not so good for the sponsors??

CHARITY? NOT REALLY!

 

10th August 1974
The Charity Shield match between Leeds and Liverpool was the first to be played at Wembley and the first to be decided on penalties but it is best remembered for the sending off of Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan!!

The 1974 FA Charity Shield match was the 52nd in history, an annual English Association Football match played between the winners of the previous season's Football League First Division and FA Cup. The match was contested by Leeds Utd, the champions of the 1973-4 First Division (top Football League division in those days), and Liverpool, the 1973-4 FA Cup winners. It was held at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, 10 August 1974. Watched by a crowd of 67,000, the match ended in a 1–1 draw and was decided by a penalty shoot out which was won 6–5 by Liverpool.

The game was the first in which Bob Paisley and Brian Clough managed Liverpool and Leeds respectively. In recognition of his services to the club, Liverpool asked their recently retired manager Bill Shankly to lead the team out onto the field.

The match is mostly remembered for Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan being jointly dismissed from the field by referee Bob Matthewson in the 60th minute after they had a fight. Keegan, who claimed provocation, was furious about being sent off, and threw his shirt away. Bremner copied him, and the two players were afterwards charged with bringing football into disrepute. The FA Disciplinary Committee imposed tough punishments, but were themselves heavily criticised by people in football who doubted their competence.

Football On This Day – 10th August 1977
Liverpool signed Kevin Keegan’s replacement at Anfield – Kenny Dalglish. The Scot was bought from Celtic for £440,000 and became a Liverpool legend.

Football On This Day – 10th August 2003
Football finally arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium – then Eastlands – after its conversation from the stadium that staged the 2002 Commonweath Games. Manchester City’s first match was a friendly against Barcelona with Nicolas Anelka scoring the first goal at the ground in City’s 2-1 victory.

ESCAPE TO VICTORY

In the World War II film "Escape to Victory" prisoners included Pele, Bobby Moore, Ossie Ardiles and Russell Osman (ok not quite such a star player)! Release date July 30th 1981 (USA)

These "chaps" played a Nazi side at the camp, as part of the propaganda tournament, which presumably had the prize as "victory" in a "Death Match"...is that clear? TJhe film was loosely based on the legend of occupied Ukraine's FC Start, a club that was said to have challenged a German all stars team in 1942. The Start lads were told at half time, when they were leading..."Well done, you've played good soccer and we appreciate it. But now in the second half you have to lose! You must, This is an order. If you don't lose, you'll be shot! FC Start ignored the diktat, score three more before the break and went to a mass grave at Baby Yar.

The truth was a biot more complex for during 1942, Start consisted mainly of former Soviet professionals from the temporarily disbanded Dynamo Kiev! They played several matches against occupying soldiers and won them all convincingly, winning once 11-0. It was at this point the Nazi administration ordered a high profile match against a German team, Flakelf and appointed an SS officer as Ref and intimated that should Start win there would be severe repercussions. Nevertheless, Start won 5-3! The final indignity for the Nazis coming when the "prisoner" defender Klimenko rounded the German keeper in the last seconds of the match but in stead of rolling the ball into the net for a sixth, he contemptuously kicked the ball back up the pitch!

A week later, following another match which the inmates won 8-0, the team was rounded up and sent to the Siretz Labout Camp where five of the team were tortured and shot. Some historians question the accuracy of the match reporting suggesting a "romanticised myth" but one thing is certain FC Start, unlike Pele, and hjis team mates, there was no Hollywood reception after!!

The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it starred professionals Bobby Moore and Osvaldi Ardiles, Mike Summerbee and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan. Other Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes: Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. Yabo Yablonsky wrote the script and the film was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT. ALFIE?

Alfie Whiteman signed with the Spurs Academy, aged 10, in 2009. He won a professional contract in 2019 and was member of the club's Europa squad in 2025. He made ONE first team appearance against Ludogorets from Bulgaria in 2020. He decided that he had had enough with the limited chances available so he picked up his camera and left his gloves behind!a jetty

A year later, after that Europa Trophy, he has his first exhibition, named as "A Loan" and hung at the OOF Gallery within the Tottenham stadium. This offers an intimate portrait of a time in his career. Through self portraits, diary entries and a life-size reconstruction of a sauna where he spent time reflecting on his future, he documents grappling with questions about his future on and off the pitch.

He hangs out of a launderette machine, mooning the camera! **** In another he sits naked on a jetty overlooking Loch Mockeln; not quite what you would expect from a man who had spent most of his life in the highly structured environment of an elite football club. Sorry not printing these!!

He lived near the Spurs' stadium and his life style was not completely one that was going to lead him into the professional game BUT he joined Spurs as a child and climbed the ranks in the club. While this was going on he had the burning desire to consider life outside the professional game. He had to consider the sacrifices, the competition, the cut throat nature of the game having to make up his mind about this ambition or something else! In his social circle he met directors, producers and creatives who gradually made him think about life after football. He spent time shadowing and assisting people who could help him build foundations for the day he wanted to follow another "career".

He hosted a radio show under his mum's maiden name; he acted in a play trying to avoid being defined as a "footballer"! He began to realise the opportunities elsewhere and it was in Sweden that helped him reflect, living in a small town, surrounded by forests and that helped him slow down and look inwards.  a tranquil lake!! "A liberating peace when self portraits emerged "almost accidently". 

Worth clicking on this link!!
https://inews.co.uk/culture/arts/alfie-whiteman-played-tottenham-quit-26-photographer-4662718

6th of the Eighth

 6th August 1977

After having made 472 League appearances for them Spurs let 32-year-old goalkeeper Pat Jennings move to rivals Arsenal for £45,000 believing his best years were behind him. Over the next 8 years he made another 237 League appearances for the Gunners!

6th August 2008 Inevitably when a club celebrates their centenary the opportunity is taken to look back at the clubs' history. When Huddersfield Town celebrated their centenary in 2008 they entertained Arsenal at their Galpharm Stadium in their centenary match on 6th August. Those two clubs shared an important figure in their respective histories - Herbert Chapman - and much time was spent reflecting on the influence of that great manager had on the histories of the two respective clubs. The 1920s and 1930s saw both Huddersfield and Arsenal record hat-trick of League titles with Chapman being credited in building the sides that achieved those honours  although he wasn't with either club for the whole of those hat-trick periods.  In addition to celebrating the centenary the match was played for the Herbert Chapman Trophy with the Londoners taking the honours with a 2-1 victory in front of 19,044 fans. The trophy was presented to the winners by Ken Chapman, Herbert Chapman's nephew.

THE WATNEY CUP

THE WATNEY CUP   Watney was the first sponsored competition played for by Football League clubs - Watney's being a major brewer back then with Watney's Red Barrel providing the bulk of my liquid intake at the time. The Watney Mann Invitation Cup, joined the national fixture list at the start of the 1970/71 season. The competition was made up of 8 clubs - two from each of the four divisions who in the previous season had been the top scorers in their division and who had not been either promoted or won a place in a European competition.

It initially proved to be a popular competition adding a bit of competitive spice to the normally pedestrian pre-season friendly fixture list. It also proved to be innovative by introducing to the British game the penalty shoot-out to settle drawn matches. In the second season of the competition there was an experiment with the rules with offside being restricted only to the penalty area. It proved to be a success with fewer stoppages and less defensive football.

It also opened the eyes of the football world to a new and eventually lucrative source of money from sponsorship. Competing clubs not only had a share of gate receipts and TV income but each participating side received £4,000 for entering. Another £500 went to each first round winners, £500 more for a victory in the semis and £1000 for the winners. In addition The Football League and Football Association shared £50,000 from the sponsors. So perhaps not surprisingly only one club ever declined an invitation to enter.

With proven goalscorers making up the competing clubs the first season saw each match averaging over 4 goals and 21,012 spectators a game going through the turnstiles.  That second statistic was helped by Manchester United's participation and the fact that - for the only time in the four years of the competition - both finalists were from the First Division.

Manchester United competed in the second season and their 2-1 first round defeat at Halifax saw the top attendance in the competition - 19,765 (gate receipts £7,782) - but overall the average dropped to 12,196. Manchester United qualified for the third Watney Cup in 1972  but declined the invitation. Presumably following their early defeat at Halifax in 1971 they wanted a more secure pre-season fixture list and arranged friendlies in Torquay, Bournemouth, Copenhagen and Berlin when the Watney Cup was being decided. Bristol Rovers won the 1972 tournament with average attendances slipping again, to 11,648.

The giant-killing of 1971 and 1972 came to an end in 1973 when First Division Stoke won the competition and that helped increase the average crowd to 13,196 but despite that improvement the 1973 tournament proved to be the fourth and final staging of the competition.

Full results -1970/71 Competing clubs -

First Division - Derby County & Manchester United
Second Division - Hull City and Sheffield United
Third Division - Fulham & Reading
Fourth Division - Aldershot and Peterborough United

First Round (Saturday August 1st 1970) Final Attendance: 32,049 Saturday 8th August 1970  DerbyCounty 4 (McFarland, Hinton, Durban,Mackay) Manchester United 1 (Best) TEAMS Derby County  Green;Webster, Robson, Durban, McFarland, Mackay, McGovern, Carlin, O'Hare, Hector, Hinton. Manchester UnitedStepney; Edwards, Dunne, Crerand, Ure, Sadler, Morgan (sub: Stiles), Law (sub: Fitzpatrick), Charlton, Kidd, Best.  Many very important names in football history!!

JIMMY FLOYD HASSELBAINK-A MIXED BAG

On this day in 1999, Leeds (no messing!) United FC, Chairman at the time, Peter Ridsdale refused to succumb to the wage demands of one of his "starlets", Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink! To avoid the issue, Ridsdale sold him to Atletico Madrid for £12 million...a reasonable price for a decent centre-forward. After being Leeds' top scorer for the previous two years, Jimmy was demanding that the club splashed out £60,000 A WEEK for his services! Obviously he would have become the highest paid player in the League!  Jimmy's Mr 15 got his way in the end as Atletico threw money at the striker but were promptly relegated that season!! Tough stuff, Jimmy.

Senior career* as a PLAYER!
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1990–1991	Telstar	4	(0)
1991–1994	AZ Alkmaar	46	(5)
1994–1995	Neerlandia
1995–1996	Campomaiorense	31	(12)
1996–1997	Boavista	29	(20)
1997–1999	Leeds United	69	(34)
1999–2000	Atlético Madrid	34	(24)
2000–2004	Chelsea	136	(69)
2004–2006	Middlesbrough	58	(22)
2006–2007	Charlton Athletic	25	(2)
2007–2008	Cardiff City	36	(7)
Total		468	(195)
International career
1998–2002	Netherlands	27	(9)

He was signed by English side, Leeds Utd, for £2 million before the 1997–98 season, where he established himself as a prolific goalscorer and he went on to win the Premier League Golden Boot award in 1999. He was sold on to Spanish club Atletico Madrid for £10 million the same year, reaching the final of the Copa del Rei despite the club also suffering relegation from La Liga. After that he had a lot of fun....in England!! You have to wonder why he had so many "moves"??

International career
1998–2002	Netherlands	27	(9)
Managerial career
2013–2014	Royal Antwerp
2014–2015	Burton Albion
2015–2016	Queens Park Rangers
2017–2018	Northampton Town
2021–2022	Burton Albion

In March 2023, Hasselbaink was hired as a coach for the England national team, in a move that reunited him with former Middlesbrough teammate Gareth Southgate. In August 2024, following Southgate's departure in the aftermath of England's UEFA Euro 2024 final defeat, Hasselbaink also departed his role as assistant head coach. In December 2025, Hasselbaink was announced as assistant coach for the Suriname national team, joining a coaching staff with Winston Bogarde, under head coach, Henk ten Cate. TOMORROW.....Football was not giving him enough ££££.....what happened next to help?